Maximizing benefit from petroleum revenue for equity growth and poverty reduction in Cambodia

In a South-South knowledge exchange, Cambodian officials visited Timor-Leste to learn about petroleum development.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia– With support from the Norwegian Government Oil for Development Program, UNDP Cambodia has for several years enjoyed a strong collaboration with the Royal Government of Cambodia on oil and gas matters.

Working together with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) and other Cambodian agencies, UNDP’s objective is to help strengthen Cambodia’s capacity to regulate and manage its emerging oil and gas sector for the benefit of the Cambodian people.

In August 2011, with support from UNDP, officials from the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority visited Timor-Leste. Their visit aimed to gain an understanding of the work and experiences of the Timor-Leste Petroleum Authority, as well as the country’s experiences in managing petroleum contracts and petroleum revenue.

Both the Timor-Leste and Cambodian officials highly valued the opportunity to share knowledge and experience in the oil and gas sector. For the Cambodian delegation, the visit was timely as Cambodia is in the process of developing its own petroleum policy and legislations. Cambodia aims to have a Petroleum Policy ready in the near future to regulate the sector.

During the visit, the Cambodia officials were introduced by their Timor-Leste hosts to way they handle exploration, development, production, transportation, and distribution of petroleum and natural gas with the objective to provide Timor-Leste citizens with maximum benefit and uphold best practices in health, safety and environment standards.

“The study tour provides some thought, knowledge and perspectives for the Cambodian Petroleum Policy Framework Working Group (PPWG) work on developing a petroleum policy. The PPWG was able to share knowledge and experiences with its counterpart, the National Petroleum Authority of Timor-Leste (NAP) on petroleum matters,” Mr. Diep Sareiviseth, who headed the Cambodian delegation, said of the visit.

“It is important that CNPA keeps good contacts with NAP as we can share idea and experience to develop our petroleum industries. CNPA will look at the current Timor-Leste’s Joint Petroleum Development Area (overlapping area between Timor-Leste and Australia) as it could be of usefulness [to Cambodia] since we have overlapping area with Thailand too,” he added.

The Cambodia officials also had insights into the economic policy related to the use of petroleum fund in Timor-Leste. They also attended the Extractive Industry Transparency International (EITI) conference “Reflections & Roadmaps - EITI Implementing Countries, Transparency & Stability: An Evaluation of the Timor-Leste Transparency Model (TLTM)".